


Red Really Isn't Your Colour

by spanglecap



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Ch.2 Post-Winter Soldier, Comfort, Complex relationships, Established but Secret Relationships, F/M, Fluff, Hurt, getting found out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-24
Updated: 2014-12-07
Packaged: 2018-02-26 19:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2663972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spanglecap/pseuds/spanglecap
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Apparently red isn't Steve's colour. It's a shame, because he's rather fond of red.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm English and can't bring myself to take the "u" out of "colour" when writing the word.  
> As I was writing this I thought it could almost be viewed as a sequel to my other story "Close" if you wanted to read into it that way, but it can be read by itself too :)

The chain holding the punching bag rattles with every hit he throws at it. Natasha watches Steve from the doorway to the gym idly, leaning back against the wall. He hasn’t noticed her come in yet, and to be quite honest she’s enjoying the show, the muscles in his back a symphony of movement.

Another minute or so passes before one of Steve’s punches snaps the chain and sends the busted punching bag skidding across the floor, useless. Natasha takes it as her cue to make her presence known and slips off her heels as Steve grabs another bag and hoists it up to the hook on the ceiling.

“You going to hit that thing all day, soldier?” she teases, padding across the cushioned gym floor.

Steve looks around at Natasha’s voice and can’t stop the grin that breaks out across his features. She’s been away on a solo mission for the last few days, and though she’s been away for longer before now, he wants nothing more than to pull her into his arms and kiss her senseless.

But someone could walk in any second, so he doesn’t.

It seems like Natasha has other ideas as she closes the distance between them and unbuttons her jacket.

“Are you going to kiss me or are you just going to stand there looking pretty?”

There’s a smile tugging at her crimson lips, and he glances around out of habit even though they’re alone.

“What if someone comes in?”

 Though Steve is more than fine with the rest of the team knowing about their relationship, Natasha had said that she didn’t want them to know yet. At the start, things had been mostly physical but even when they’d decided to give this whole dating thing a try they’d still kept it secret. So he’s stood by her wishes and waited for her. He isn’t going anywhere, not after everything they’ve been through.

“About that…” she starts, pressing her body up to his and resting her hands on his stomach. “I’ve been thinking we should tell them.”

Steve’s stomach does a flip and his chest swells and he’s grinning like an idiot and _god_ , it’s taken seven months but suddenly all the waiting and wishing and stolen moments together are worth it. They’re worth every second because he’ll be able to kiss her in front of the others and tell them that they’re going out on a date instead of sneaking out of the tower separately or meeting in secret between missions.

“You have?”

Natasha’s heart stutters, because he looks so _relieved_ , and she knows this was the right thing to say to him, even though she still has doubts. The secrecy of it all has been getting to him lately, though he’d always brush it off and say he was fine, she knew it wasn’t. Over the last few days away from him she’d decided that it wasn’t fair to keep pushing how much he could take anymore.

“Not yet,” she says, glancing away for a second before looking back up to him, determined. She can do this. For him. “But soon.”

“Soon,” he agrees, and finally he pulls her into his arms and plants his lips on the top of her head. She closes her eyes, a shiver going down her spine as his warmth surrounds her. Funny, it’s been months but sometimes the way he holds her so tender and close still feels foreign.

“Thank you,” he says softly, kissing her hair again.

“Think it's about time,” she replies. _Thank you for waiting so long_. She doesn’t need to say it. They don’t speak for a moment, but then Steve pulls away slightly, and there’s a mischievous glint in his eyes that Natasha recognises all too well.

“We should go upstairs and celebrate,” Steve says with a sly smile, slipping a hand under her jacket. Unfortunately the dress she's wearing stops him from feeling her skin under his fingers with out him undressing her right here. They can figure out when and how they’ll tell everyone later – right now he just wants to take her to one of their beds and rid them of these cumbersome clothes.

“You’re going to give me that kiss first,” she says slyly.

Knowing she won't let them move from this spot unless he gives her what she wants, he leans down and plants a chaste kiss on the corner of her mouth, pulling back before it can turn into anything more. That can wait until they get upstairs, with no chance of being intruded upon. She huffs indignantly and pulls him right back down. He should have known that wouldn’t satisfy her.

“Come on, I know you can do better than that,” she teases, and he can feel her playful smirk against his lips, because he’s never been able to resist her for long and she knows it. Her teeth nip at his bottom lip and even through the shirt he’s wearing the feel of her hands gliding up his chest to settle around his neck is enough to make desire pool in the pit of his stomach.

He gives in, and part of him should probably be ashamed that it takes so little to turn him to putty in her (wonderfully distracting) hands, but that part is quickly silenced by her lips. He’s just about to deepen the kiss when he hears Tony’s voice, growing louder from the corridor.

They break apart and step away from each other just in time to see Tony stroll through the door with Happy, because they've kept up the secrecy far too long to slip up now before they've had a chance to talk about how they'll tell everyone. Happy waves with a smile that looks like he's greatly amused by something, and Steve tries not to feel too awkward as he raises his hand back in greeting.

"Romanov, when did you get back?" Stark calls over to them as he and Happy head over to the boxing ring.

"A few hours ago," she replies smoothly from Steve's side. He glances over to see her head down, looking at her phone but he can see she's not actually doing anything with it. He wonders vaguely why she'd pretend to be using it.

"Well Pepper wanted to talk to you when you got back. Think she's in meetings all day but she might grab you before I take her out later."

Natasha makes a hum of acknowledgement, gaze remaining on her phone.

"America, got some new body armour I want you to test out, come down to the lab in a few hours," Tony continues, wrapping his knuckles with tape.

"Will do," Steve says. He makes a move to leave but just as he turns Tony calls back over to them. Steve whips back around.

“Oh, and by the way, Cap…” he starts, leaning forward on the ropes, trying to hide the smirk on his face.

“Yeah?” For some reason Steve gets the feeling he isn't going to like whatever he says next.

“Red  _really_ isn't your colour.”

For a moment Steve is confused.

"I'm not wearing any r..." He trails off as realisation hits, and sure enough, when he raises his hand up to his mouth, his fingertips come away a shocking shade of crimson.

Natasha finally raises her head and pockets her phone, because there's no point trying to hide it any longer. Steve looks at her like a deer in headlights and she's sure she looks just as ridiculous as he does with her lipstick smudged all over his face. She should really be annoyed that after all this time some lipstick is what betrays them, that they didn't get to tell people on their terms (because now Tony knows, everyone will), but she finds that she doesn't care. Maybe it's better this way.

Happy has that smile he gets when some pining couple in Downton Abbey finally get together. Steve still looks like he's trying to figure out what kind of intricate excuse could possibly explain this away, and Tony is grinning at them like just the thought of what Steve might come up with is the funniest thing he'll witness all year. 

Fuck it.

Steve's heart leaps in his chest when Natasha pulls him down and kisses him fiercely, because it's the last thing he expects but it's also the best feeling in the world. His head spins as he gathers her up into his arms and kisses back just as passionately. He just vaguely hears Happy whoop and Tony groan. When she breaks away they're both a little breathless, and he ignores Tony's shout telling them to get a room, one that isn't in his Tower. Well. At least they don't have to worry about when or how they'll tell everyone now.

"I think Tony's sad he didn't get to hear how you were going to explain that away," Natasha says. "Thought I'd save you the embarrassment."

"Thanks," he breathes. "Don't even want to think about what I might have blurted out."

She laughs, and pulls him down again, because this feeling of kissing him and knowing that other people are in the same room is actually not as scary as she'd thought it'd be.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just can't stop writing cute awkward things for these two
> 
>  
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, leave a comment/kudos if you did! :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So the first chapter was super cute and fluffy. This one is less so.  
> Set post-Winter Soldier. Still spelling colour with a "u" because I'm a stubborn English person

Things went bad.

Really bad.

The sky had fallen along with the Triskelion, and they’d taken Steve with them.

She finds him on the riverbank, and for a moment she fears the worst. He’s still, unmoving, and she can see his uniform soaked with blood even from a distance, vivid patches of crimson splashed across his body.

Natasha's heart is in her throat as she jumps out of the helicopter before Nick’s even landed it properly and sprints to Steve’s side. Dropping to her knees, she frantically seeks out his injuries, trying to stop her hands from shaking. A gunshot wound on his stomach looks pretty serious, another on his thigh. She can see a knife wound on his shoulder and he looks like he’s been beaten halfway to hell.

“Rogers?”

Natasha’s thankful her voice is steady as Fury limps up beside her, followed closely by Sam. She casts a glance back at them before turning back to Steve. He shows no response, and she reaches up tentatively to the side of his face that looks less damaged. Sam falls to his knees opposite her and rips off a part of his shirt, pressing down on the messy exit wound on Steve’s stomach. Natasha hopes the bullet left a cleaner entry wound on his back, but can’t move him to check.

“Steve?”

His head moves, so slight she thinks she might have imagined it, but then he coughs, water spilling from his lips. Her heart clenches.

“Nat?” he coughs out, and she can see the effort it takes him to open his eyes.

“It’s me, I’m here,” she soothes. She takes her hand away from his face and presses down on the knife wound in his shoulder, trying to ignore the way dark crimson slowly creeps into the sand around her. She can vaguely hear Fury on comms, ordering Hill to find some kind of air support, an ambulance, anything they could get without being compromised to get Rogers to a safe hospital. Who knows how many Hydra agents are scurrying around right now? Her fingers twitch over her gun.

“Buck…Where’s Bucky?”

“We’re tracking him,” she lies. She has no idea where the Winter Soldier is. But she knows if she tells Steve that, he’ll try to get up to find him, even in this state.

Steve makes a small sound of acknowledgement, and this time when he coughs, a dark crimson coats his lips. The fabric Sam’s pressing to Steve's stomach is already soaked, his hands slick with blood and he gives her a worried look. She steels herself against it, looking back to Steve. He's strong. He can make it.

“Come on, Steve. Red isn’t your colour, remember?” she says lightly, trying to hide the tremble in her voice as she wipes the blood away from his lips with her fingers. He coughs out what could be an attempt at a weak laugh.

“Why does everyone...keep tellin’ me that?” he gasps out, eyes slipping shut.

“Because you look terrible in it, that’s why,” Natasha says. She just has to keep him talking. Distract him from how bad it is.

“Yeah,” he coughs, a ghost of a smile on his face as he opens his eyes halfway. His fingers brush against her thigh. “It’s more your colour anyway.”

Natasha’s heart clenches. He’s right. She can't think of a colour more suited to her.

Hers is the colour of danger and blood. Of death, and she’d tainted him with it long ago. His eyes close again and she can see him slipping, falling through her grasp to icy clutches.

No. Not today.

She won’t let it take him. He can’t die like this.

_Not. Today._

“You’re going to be fine,” she says firmly, not knowing if he can hear her but filled with a sudden determination. She pushes Sam’s hands away from Steve’s stomach.

"Check the helicopter for any medipacks," she instructs. "One might have survived." He nods hurriedly.

"On it," he replies, and she watches him get up and run back before turning her attention to Steve again. Lifting the blood soaked rag from his stomach, she tries to assess the damage. She’s no doctor, but has enough training and field experience to know what to look for.

And it looks bad. Worse than it had a few minutes ago. She hopes that the bullet hasn’t pierced any of his organs, but she can’t be sure. Sam returns clutching a medipack and a hacked off seatbelt. She grabs a few syringes, loads them with enough morphine to put down a horse and sets about getting it into Steve’s system, because if she can’t do anything to aid the wounds she can at least try to take some of the pain away. Sam ties the seatbelt around Steve’s thigh in an attempt to stop some of the blood flow to it, but there isn’t even any clotting gel in the medipack so beyond that there’s nothing they can do apart from wait from the ambulance and keep pressing his wounds.

Natasha knows he can pull through. He survived seventy years in ice for Christ’s sake. He’s been injured before, badly, and he’d pulled through. He can make it.

But she hadn’t needed him like air the way she does now, and the difference it makes is terrifying.

“How far away is that damn ambulance?” Sam asks worriedly.

“Two minutes,” Fury says quickly. He fumbles in his pocket and hands her a phone. “I need to leave.”

Natasha nods. The world thinks Nick’s already dead, and it might be better if it stays that way.

"They'll have to operate. You call me the second it looks like he won't make it. I'll be close by if things go south."

Natasha's not sure what Fury could do if things got to that point, but she doesn't want to think about it. Fury vanishes and she can hear sirens getting closer. She lets herself breathe a little.

Steve can make it. He’ll pull through. She doesn’t let herself believe anything else.

 

* * *

 

Consciousness seeps into Steve’s senses slowly. The steady, mechanical beep of a monitor. The clinical smell of disinfectant. Light pouring through his eyelids. Pain.

He struggles to orientate himself. Then it hits him. The helicarrier. Hydra. The Winter Soldier.

Steve opens his eyes. Trying to push himself up off the bed, he grunts as pain shoots through his already aching body. The machine next to him flatlines as he claws as the patches and needles hooked up to his body and rips them off. He has to get out. Has to find Bucky.

Suddenly there are hands pushing him back down, and it takes him a moment to realise who it is, drugs still heavy in his system. Soft, gentle hands, a worried voice. A shock of red hair. Natasha.

A trio of armed guards burst into the room, followed by a concerned looking nurse. Natasha looks around sharply at them but doesn’t take her hands off him.

“We’re fine here,” she says firmly, and they lower their guns. “He just wanted the patches off.”

The guards back off and the nurse nods curtly, clearly disapproving but not brave enough to challenge a woman with a gun, Black Widow or not. They close the door behind them but Steve can see the shadow of them standing outside the room cast against the blinds. Natasha takes her hands away, and Steve notices the way her fingers hover over the gun on her thigh. She seems to know what he’s thinking before he can ask.

“We didn’t know if Hydra would come and try to finish the job,” she explains, and Steve nods. If they would come and finish what the Winter Soldier couldn’t. She doesn’t have to say it.

“I need to find Bucky,” he says hoarsely, and his throat feels like it’s full of glass shards. He starts to move again but both the pain and Natasha stop him before he can get very far. His heart thrums in his chest from the effort of it, and his head swims from the sudden shock of pain that goes through him.

“You need to stay here and recover,” Natasha argues. “It’ll take at least a few days even with your healing capabilities.” Steve’s body wholeheartedly agrees with her, but his brain can’t tolerate the thought of letting Bucky slip through his fingers again.

“But Bucky, he-”

“-No buts, Steve,” she cuts off firmly. “If you go out like this you’re going to get yourself killed and I can’t let you do that.” There’s something in her voice that makes him hesitate. But Bucky had let him live, and that had to mean something, right? He needed to find him, before Bucky started to forget whatever had made him unable to complete his mission. Unable to kill him.

“You don’t understand, Nat, I-”

“-No,” she interrupts again, starting to sound aggravated. “No I don’t understand.” Steve’s heart twists in his chest, and not from any physical injury because there’s pain in her eyes. Hurt.

“The kind of relationship you have with Barnes, I’ve never had that. So I’m not going to pretend I understand. I know you have to go after him, and I won’t stop you.” Her features soften as she reaches out to the side of his face. “But you need to heal first. You nearly _died._ ”

“I can heal on the road,” Steve says, and he knows he’s being stubborn but every second that passes means Bucky is getting further away. Natasha snatches her hand back and turns away from him, letting out a frustrated sound.

“Goddammit, Steve, don’t be so fucking stupid,” she snaps harshly. It comes out more vicious than she’d intended, but she's had a pretty fucking stressful few days finding the world she'd come to see as her salvation was built on decades of deceit and watching her lover's past come back to ruin him. Not to mention the hours Steve was in surgery, not knowing if he was alive or dead. So forgive her if emotions are running a little high right now, but there’s no way she’s going to let him out there with Hydra scattered and looking for payback. Natasha sighs after a few moments and turns enough to cast a glance back at him. Brow furrowed, she pinches the bridge of her nose with thumb and forefinger and rubs at her eyes. She just wants it all to _stop_ for a moment.

“It’s just…I can’t lose you.” She looks back at him properly, hoping it'll give her the confidence to speak, because the words feel foreign even in her mind.

“You almost died a few hours ago and..." She takes a deep breath. _Say it_. "I need you, Steve.”

More than anything, she needs him, in a way she never thought possible before today.

Steve had figured out early on in their relationship that Natasha would never tell him that she loves him. Not in those words. But when she tells him she needs him, it feels like the same thing and it hits him like a punch to the gut.

His chest swells and for a moment all of the pain in his body is forgotten, after the moment it takes for him to realise what she's saying. He’s never tried to force out how he feels about her with words for fear of unbalancing their already sometimes undefinable relationship. But she needs him. And _god_ , he needs her. Has done for months, now more than ever. But the happiness is short lived. His stomach sinks.

He’d been so singular in his drive to find Bucky and stop Hydra with no regard for his own life that he'd hardly even thought about anything else. About how it wasn't just him who had been through hell the last few days, and how she'd been by his side the whole time. About what it would do to her should he be put in hospital again going after Bucky, or worse, got himself killed?

And he’d already nearly done that once today.

“Come here,” he says, and she does, in a heartbeat. Sometimes it's all too easy to forget that she can be fragile too, underneath it all. She's just better at hiding it. How could he have been so obtuse? He takes her hand in his and she leans down to breathe against his lips, foreheads touching. “I’m sorry.” And he means it. All he can do is pray she forgives him.

To love someone isn’t hard. Anyone could love anything. A song, or apple pie, or the sound of rain on a window. But to truly _need_ something, some _one_ , so fiercely you can’t live without them is something else entirely, and that’s what it feels like when she kisses him, the intensity of it burning him to his core. Who needs love, when he could feel like this?

“I need you too,” he breathes when they break apart, glad he’s not hooked up to the monitors anymore because his heart is pounding a million miles a minute. He doesn’t need her to tell him that she loves him. He just wants her to keep on needing him as much as he needs her.

“Then stay here for me. Heal.” Steve thinks this is the closest she’ll ever get to pleading. He nods.

“Three days. Then I’m leaving.”

“ _We’re_ leaving,” she corrects.

“You’re coming with me?” Steve wonders what he ever did to deserve her but can’t quite figure it out. He doesn't think he ever will.

“Only if you don’t move from this bed for the next three days,” she says, one corner of her mouth twitching up. He coughs out a laugh, throat still feeling a bit raw.

“Deal,” he says, pulling her back down for another kiss. It’s soft, tender this time and the stitches in his lip don’t even twinge with pain. She pulls back.

“Besides, we need a few days to find you a new suit. Think Tony’s been working on a few prototypes that would work better.” Steve looks confused.

“Work better how?”

“Well the old one is just _covered_ with red,” she says gravely. He lets out a short laugh.

“You know, I’ve heard some people say that red isn’t my colour,” he replies with a slight smile. She rolls her eyes.“It's a shame though,” he muses aloud, reaching up to thread his fingers through her hair. She gives him a questioning look.

“I’m really rather fond of red.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sam spends the next three days making them listen to Trouble Man, helping them plan their first move and crossing things off Steve's list before things get tough again. Says it's good to enjoy the little things when you get chance. Natasha can see why Steve likes him.
> 
>  
> 
> I actually think Steve would look great/adorable in a maroon knitted sweater. Maybe it's the festive season getting to me.
> 
>    
> As always, thanks for reading!  
> This story came about when just a few lines popped into my head and I've enjoyed writing it. I feel like Nat & Steve would be the type to have stupid recurring themes/in-jokes. She would never let him forget some things.  
> Comments/kudos always welcome!
> 
>  
> 
> (Also I don't know why but it's put the end notes for Chapter 1 underneath the notes for this chapter for some reason. Eh, technology, what can you do)

**Author's Note:**

> I just can't stop writing cute awkward things for these two
> 
>  
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, leave a comment/kudos if you did! :)


End file.
